True Disciples

In this age as a Christian, it is so easy to get mixed into the more prominent area of complacent Christianity. Not only is it found in abundance, it's easy...very easy.

No one tells you what to do, you receive feel good messages from the pulpit that may or may not challenge your walk with Christ, no one calls you out on your sin (so you then forget you are even sinning), and no one encourages you to research to make sure what you're hearing is sound doctrine.

Source: http://photos2.demandstudios.com

I know I can't be making this up, because the apostle Paul was thinking the same thing when he said:

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." - 2 Timothy 4:3

Is this you? Do you long to hear what your itching ears want to hear, or instead sound doctrine that will put you in your place, convict and lead to repentance?

The latter doesn't sound so fun for most people, which is why it is the road less traveled.

"For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." - Matthew 7:13-14

Why will more enter the wide road? It's easier.

In a society where we want more for less and faster service all of the time, we treat our most important relationship and life choices the same way. We want what is convenient and fast, not what is difficult and slow. We don't want to suffer in order to gain rewards, we want the rewards with no consequences or suffering. However, it's the journey that makes the rewards worthwhile. Consider the following verse:

"We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." - Romans 5:3-5

If we understand what suffering produces, our hearts should be focused on hanging tight for the ride.

Source: ledgerlink.monster.com

One Another Relationships

In the Word of God, we are commanded to do several things. Many don't appear as commands, but they clearly don't say "if you choose". In fact, in Paul's writings they many times begin with the word "therefore."

In regards to one another (and I mean between disciples of Jesus Christ), how are we supposed to act? What are we supposed to do to appear different from the world? How can we help each other grow?

Here are a few important places to start, and let me warn you, some may make you shift uncomfortably because it is not something you're used to seeing in church, but it is what the Bible calls us to do:

• Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11, Hebrews 3:13, Hebrews 10:24)
• Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
• Confess to one another (James 5:16)
• Bear with one another (Colossians 3:13)
• Forgive (Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13)
• Be humble and patient (Ephesians 4:2)
• Submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21)
• Live in harmony (Romans 12:16)
• Be devoted (Romans 12:10)
• Honor one another (Romans 12:10)
• Speak truth to one another (Ephesians 4:15-16)
• Accept one another (Romans 15:7)
• Love (1 Peter 4:8, 1:22
• Admonish (Colossians 3:16)

I want to focus on the last one. The word admonish is not really used in today's society so I wanted to look up what it meant, since I always assumed it meant to encourage. Boy was I wrong. It means to "rebuke mildly, advise strongly; to warn someone of their error."

Clearly we are to rebuke one another to get them back on track if we see one another falling into sin or going down the wrong path. This is how we can prevent disciples from falling away and leaving the faith.

Source: www.hcs.harvard.edu

The reason Paul, Timothy and Peter were so adamant about encouraging one another and staying in each other's lives, the way it was exemplified in the 1st century church, was to keep the enemy at bay from causing dissension, factions and division within the body.

Are you united in the body with other disciples that are challenging your growth towards maturity, encouraging you towards deepening your walk with the Lord and living in harmony?

If not, I want to ask an honest question, who's disciple are you?

It's time to get real. 

Christmas Reflection

Merry Christmas Eve!

It's been a whirlwind of a month. Every single day this month has been filled with parties, events, rehearsals, or simply busyness. I've actually enjoyed it, but haven't taken the time to really meditate on why we really celebrate Christmas.

What would CHRISTmas be without Christ? Nothing. Reflecting on some Scriptures with my mother-in-law, she read to me her journal entry regarding how touched she was at Mary's responsiveness to the Holy Spirit. I loved what she wrote and wanted to share it here.

"We are too busy with our daily obligations. With thoughts of things to do and places to go, we read the Bible and hurry through passages to get it done, and feel like we did our part. Rushed and trying to meet all the deadlines that lie before us, our thoughts allow little room for quietness so we can listen to him. We have our phones nearby; disruptive lifestyles do not allow us to be like Mary, to be submissive, willing, able, quiet and eager to do his will. Our will usually wins. We justify our feelings, thoughts, and actions all too easily. We've become complacent in a world so cold. We've been lukewarm, compared to Mary."  - Gladys Ferrer

After reading Luke 1:26-56, you see how Mary responded to a situation that would have had her stoned and killed with faith, trust and hope in God. She even ends that passage of Scripture in Luke with a song unto the Lord.

May we all take the time to allow God to work in our lives as Mary did. She took the time to listen and believe that she would carry the Messiah in her womb.

God has a purpose for us all...unless we listen to the calling, we can miss it in the busyness of the season and life in general.

May you truly have a blessed and merry Christmas with the fullness of all it is!

The Bigger Picture.

During my quiet time with the Lord yesterday, I read 1 John 2:15-17 and was cut to the heart. I put the verse as my recent update on Facebook but felt a prodding to go deeper into how clearly this passage affects us daily. 

The passage reads as follows (NIV):

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

Now having cable, it's so tempting to watch the latest reality shows (I'm not talking about Jersey Shore...I won't stoop that low), but at times I find myself casually getting sucked into the life of the Kardashians. The one I watch the most is actually a very pleasant reality show that I've loved for years, House Hunters on HGTV. 

The media, socialites with their own shows, celebrities, and reality shows in general have taken over. But when you really look at them, all they offer are the "cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes and the boasting of what he has and does." All that you find now is each bragging about how expensive this or that is, how much the dress they wore at an awards show cost, or what they do or how many fans they have...etc. It's so empty because all it offers is what the world has: temporary satisfaction, but no truth.

Even the one I watch most, House Hunters, is about couples looking for the right home. They end up with the top 3 and you get to guess along with the show which one they choose (I'm normally wrong...lol). Regardless, something as nice and simple as that show makes me long for desires of this world. I've noticed how when people choose the perfect home, it's so much about the "stuff". Bigger is better, nicer appliances, bedrooms so large that you don't know what to fill it with, closets sometimes bigger than some peoples apartments, and yet there's still little satisfaction. 

As a society, we always want more. Guess what? The world never satisfies the lust of the flesh, so it will keep you wanting more and more with nothing but emptiness at the end of the tunnel. 

BUT...

The Lord offers us a hope in him. He will give us eternal life, eternal love...one that only he can give that satisfies beyond anything the world can attempt to offer. 

I exhort my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to go beyond the desires of the world. It's easy to get caught up in it...I have. But look at the BIGGER picture. It's only a short time we're on this earth, and it's not meant for our fleshly satisfaction or our society's "life is short so live how you want" mantra. It's meant to reach others for Christ. 

"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

Love Defined - Part Two

This "Love Defined" blog is geared more towards married couples. In my blogs I reiterate often what the media feeds us about love and relationships is so wrong only because I am so passionate about it. I hope you can feel my passion burning as I write this.

I want to see marriages succeed, in love, happy, growing, learning, and seeking God. That's so important to me and I know it's important to the Lord as well.

In Matthew 19:5 it says "'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (i.e. Divorce)

God hates divorce. If you don't believe me look up Malachi 2:16. Divorce is such a normal part of life in the U.S. that now we're in shock or in awe when we see couples that have lasted 25+ years and are happy. Is that not true?

If Jesus Christ is not the foundation of your marriage, it will fail. He should be your rock, your strength. My husband and I include the Lord in every decision we make, large or small, because we understand it takes three to make our marriage work. While we were dating, we laid the foundation of our relationship. We prayed together and allowed the Lord to guide our steps if we were intended to step into the sanctity of marriage together. It wasn't a decision taken lightly.

Who you marry is who you will spend the REST of your life with, who you'll grow old with, who, Lord permitting, you have children with, who will know you better than anyone else on this earth. If you go into marriage thinking about divorce, or without the thought of permanence or bailing out when things get hard, it will fail.

Like I said in Part One, this is not going to be without its difficulties. In 2 Corinthians 6:4-5 Paul talks about how we are to commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance, in troubles, hardships and distresses. It's a natural part of life...not a cop out to get out of a union as powerful as marriage.

When you become married, two become one. That's not just a Spice Girl song, it's Biblical. So when you divorce, you are tearing a piece of you that will forever be gone. The Lord does heal wounds and does restore lives, but I don't know one person who has forgotten their previous marriage or how they felt when they were married. Although it may feel like another life, it's never completely forgotten, why? It was a part of them that has been torn and left behind.

I can only compare marriage to two colors of Play-doh combined and made into one large dough. No one, no matter how meticulous you are, can pull those two pieces together and make them look the exact same they did before becoming one. That's exactly what marriage is.

There are several things you can do to help boost your marriage. First off, go on dates. If you're on a budget, be creative. There's plenty of good ideas that don't cost money. A friend of mine made a huge tent in the family room and watched movies in there with her sweetheart for Valentine's day. I saw a picture of it and it was so cute and romantic and cost $0. Secondly, don't forget to say "I love you". Thirdly, communicate, even about the small things.

Don't slack off in marriage. Don't give up. Love perseveres. It hopes. It NEVER FAILS. When it gets hard, pray harder. Love deeply!!! 1 Peter 4:8 says "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."

Love with a love that is constant. There should be no room for separation or divorce, only for unity. When in doubt of what true love is...go back to the basics: 1 Corinthians 13:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

Love Defined - Part One

The past two weeks there has been a series called "Love Defined" at church in light of Valentine's Day. I thought it not only appropriate, but necessary to discuss what REAL love is.

With society always telling us their opinion on what love is, movies telling you what it looks like, the judicial system agreeing that it's over through divorce, it's no wonder we're a disaster!!! Divorce is at it's highest ever! Why? Because people "fall out of love" or due to "irreconcilable differences" or "we're just not the same anymore, we've changed".

What a bunch a crap!!! Excuse my lack of propriety, but that is absolutely true. Why would you expect to be the same??? The great thing about marriage is the fact that you get to GROW and mature together through this wonderful thing called life. Is it always perfect? Absolutely not...but it's fun, especially when you're both working on it daily.

I've only been married three years, but it's been an amazing journey that has only just begun. Most importantly though, we communicate....EVERY DAY. Even when I'm not in the mood. Why? Because when communication dwindles, it ultimately can disappear and so can the relationship.

Back to this thing called LOVE. "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice got out sins" 1 John 4:10. Breaking it down: we only love because God loved us first (1 John 4:19)!!! WOW! Please soak that in a bit.

God and love go hand in hand. He created love. If you don't know God, then you can't love others.

I imagine that's why so many people are confused and "fall out of love". They were never in love to begin with. I'll take it a little further...they probably don't know what love is.

We hear love mentioned in 95% of songs (I made up that stat), we watch it in the same amount of movies...but in all that, I've only seen true love portrayed a handful of times. Very sad, but it makes sense. They don't know what love is...

Love is more than a feeling (despite what movies tell you - P.S. DON'T FOLLOW YOUR HEART....that's the worst advice ever. The heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9))

What is love: God. God is love. Plain and simple...know him and you'll know love. (1 John 4:8)
Love is: patient, kind, does not boast, does not envy, is not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps NO record of wrong, does not delight in evil, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perserveres, NEVER FAILS.

So if love never fails, why are there so many failed marriages? Because there is no knowledge of what true love. That's a long list of what love is, and none of which I see society promote. We are a rude, self-seeking, pleasure abiding, vengeful society. We look out for number one whenever possible. None of that resembles love according to the Word of God, which is inspired by God, the Creator of love.

Pray for love. It is more important than ALL else. Our first commandment involves love..."Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind." Then it goes on to say "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Christmas Spirit?

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year, hands down. Many people would agree with that statement. But the true meaning of Christmas has been lost to a consumer-mad society that cares more about what sales are going on and what's the hottest toy out, than what really matters (and possibly going broke while doing that).

Most everyone knows we celebrate Christmas because it's a symbolic day for celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Giving gifts just makes it that much better. The wise men brought the best of the best before the feet of baby Jesus. He was given incense, gold, and myrhh. We give gifts to show our love to those closest to us. Personally, I love seeing people open their gifts; it brings me great joy.

Last week, I went Christmas shopping with my mom at Macy's. As we were paying, we were conversing with the employee regarding Christmastime. She was explaining how every year she needs to stash away extra non-gender gifts just in case she forgot someone. How true is that, but how sad that it's come to that. I was agreeing with her as we discussed how sad it is that you worry your gift won't cost as much as someone else's, or that the other person may not like their gift from you...etc.

Why has Christmas come to this??? Giving is supposed to be out of the kindness of your heart, not a competition of who can get or give better gifts. Especially in a tight financial economy, some people can't afford to get every single person on their "list" a gift this year. But there is so much pressure all around to do so.

If I want to give a gift to someone, there should never be an expectancy of receiving one in return, because then you're not giving with the right heart. For that, just get yourself a gift. You know yourself better anyways.

I've been reading a few articles on Christmas and here are some excerpts that stuck out to me:

"But to a growing group of Christians, this focus on the commercial aspect of Christmas is itself the greatest threat to one of Christianity's holiest days. "It's the shopping, the going into debt, the worrying that if I don't spend enough money, someone will think I don't love them," says Portland pastor Rick McKinley. "Christians get all bent out of shape over the fact that someone didn't say 'Merry Christmas' when I walked into the store. But why are we expecting the store to tell our story? That's just ridiculous."

I agree with Rick. My mom is one of those that gets upset when someone tells her Happy Holidays, but many companies don't permit their employees to say anything else. However, if you're the first to say Merry Christmas, I have found that most people reply with the same.


"It's not easy, says one youth pastor whose church is part of the Advent Conspiracy. "When you start jacking with people's idea of what Christmas is and you start to go against this $450 billion machine of materialism and consumerism, it really messes with people," he explains. "It takes a lot of patience to say there's a different way - Christmas doesn't have to be like this."


"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your mother was wrong: It doesn't matter one bit if you were naughty or nice all year. Chances are, at some point in your marriage or relationship, your partner is going to give you a bad gift. And although it might not be quite as traumatic as the time you asked Santa for a Nintendo set and got a Boggle game instead, it's still going to sting.
It's one of the holiday season's unexpected traps: Just at the time of year when we're trying hard to be on our best behavior, the wrong gift can strain our marriage bonds." (The Gift That Needs Forgiving by Elizabeth Bernstein).

"Women tend to care more about gifts. They shop more, and think more about them. They attach more emotion to them. And they can be more demanding and less direct. (If I ask my husband what he wants for the holidays, he will say "nothing" and mean it. If he asks me, I will say "nothing," as well. And God help him if he believes me.)"

"Tom Valentino, who grew up in a large Italian-American family, blames his upbringing. In his parents' house, Christmas was all about religious values—and food. Gifts were an afterthought."

And this is a bad thing why? Don't get me wrong, I'm the first to tell you I love receiving gifts. But when the forefront of all our thoughts are making sure the right gifts are being purchased, I just see something wrong with the picture.

Let me reiterate, I am by no means against gift-giving. I'm completely for it. I'm against the enormous pressure to make sure you give the "perfect" gift or "we're in a fight" mentality. That last article was hilarious to read but at the same time, the motives for gift giving were incorrect. It was by obligation and not love. When someone really wants to get someone a gift (and not because society is telling them too), they'll try their best to be detailed. And whatever they give should be received with love. Because they didn't have to do anything...they wanted to.

I hope we treat this time of year the way it was intended: to celebrate the birth of the Savior born over 2,000 years ago and to bring joy to people's lives (whether it be through gifts or not).

Merry Christmas!!!

Proud of my heritage

I've noticed several of my blogs are written as a result of watching a movie. This one is no different. One of the few movies that provoke me to cry or get teary eyed without fail is "The Lost City". This movie is one interpretation/experience of a family during the Batista/Castro period where Revolution was prominent and on the rise. It shows how a wealthy family goes from having it all to losing it. If focuses on the journey that led one member of the family to the States (Andy Garcia) and the difficulty of leaving his country behind.

Every time I watch this movie, I appreciate what my grandparents did (both mother and father's side) for their children and future grandchildren. Each member in my family has a different story of their leave from a country they loved so much. Some went to prison trying to fight Fidelistas (Fidel's military), others worked the farms to earn an escape visa from the government for their immediate household, while still others could and would never escape and ended up dying in a country that betrayed them.

I love my Cuban heritage and I'm proud my parents and grandparents are Cuban, but I am so grateful that they sacrificed everything to come to a country where there was still liberty. My Abuleo (mother's dad) still doesn't speak English (which I'm not too proud of but he's stubborn =p), but whenever I've asked him about Cuba, he's proud he's from there but even more proud to be in the country that's blessed him with all that he has: America.

I don't understand when people are so proud of their country that they parade around in their flags everywhere and talk about how much better their country is than America....etc. My question to them is "why don't you move back if it's so great?" They're in America for a reason. This country is far from perfect, especially now, but it's still a great country that offers so much, which is why people die trying come here.

My children will learn both the Cuban culture and Puerto Rican culture (because my huband is P.Rican), but they will also learn that they live in a wonderful country and although their heritage is Hispanic, they are American first.